Google’s recent decision to delist “revenge porn” from its search results is a big deal, and not just for victims. Beyond opposing harmful conduct that disproportionately targets women, Google has essentially demonstrated how something akin to the European Union’s right to be forgotten can, and should, work in the US.

Some Americans have panicked over Europe’s woefully misnamed right to be forgotten, anxious at the thought of the “biggest threat to free speech online” “erasing history” and “breaking the internet”. But such a right doesn’t have to exact an exorbitant price tag, and it can come about in many different ways.